Rockets fired at Abbas's Gaza office

GAZA CITY: Nine Palestinians were wounded in the Gaza Strip on Sunday after gunmen opened fire on demonstrators supporting president Mahmud Abbas's call for early elections and mortar bombs were fired at his office, witnesses and medics said.   

Two people were wounded in Gaza City when two mortar shells were fired into the presidential compound.   

In the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip, seven Abbas supporters were wounded when interior ministry forces loyal to Hamas opened fire on a demonstration in support of the president.   

In all, at least two Palestinians were killed and 15 other people wounded on Sunday as a result of escalating violence between supporters of Abbas's Fatah party and the ruling Islamist Hamas movement.   

Among the dead was a 19-year-old woman who was caught in the crossfire in Gaza City, and a member of the presidential guard who was killed in a pre-dawn raid on a training camp.   

Among the wounded was a 10-year-old girl and a veteran war correspondent for the French newspaper Liberation.   

On Saturday Abbas called for early presidential and parliamentary elections in a move that has been slammed by Hamas.